Page 16 - Delaware Medical Journal - January/February 2021

RUNNING THE
LONG RACE
Matthew J. Burday, DO Takes the Reins as MSD’s 177th President Mary S. Fenimore
T 2021 and with it to the beginning of the Medical Society of Delaware’s 177th Presidential term, with Matthew J. Burday, DO taking the helm.
The inauguration of the Internal Medicine physician was like no other MSD has
held — done virtually though the power of Zoom and a lot of creative ingenuity. Nearly 100 attentive members throughout the state logged on and celebrated the passing of the torch to the new President with a raised glass of “cheer” and a round of cyber applause.
What was missing from this annual event was the opportunity to get to know this modest, yet determined leader in person at the time-honored annual MSD Inaugural Gala. What better way then to introduce him during an unprecedented time than through a feature article in the Delaware Medical Journal, a publication near to his heart that he is intent on enhancing during his presidency.
Dr. Burday lived throughout his youth in various communities, mainly in the South, as his father advanced his U.S. Air Force career. After living in Florida, Georgia, New York, and Texas, the family settled in New Jersey for his high school years, where Dr. Burday attended Cherry Hill High School West and became a budding thespian, performing in several school productions, including Wait Until Dark and Man of La Mancha.
A DISTINGUISHED CAREER
After graduating with a degree in Biology from Kenyon College in Ohio, he spent a year and a half working at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, learning the ins and outs of research, which he quickly realized was not a keen interest of his. He went on to medical school, earning his degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry at the New Jersey School
of Osteopathic Medicine, and arrived shortly thereafter in Delaware to do his residency at the Medical Center
of Delaware. Today Dr. Burday is an Internal Medicine hospitalist and the Director of Medical Student Education in the Department of Medicine at ChristianaCare in Newark.
A strong believer in the value of education, Dr. Burday is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College and has
been awarded the Delaware Clinical Branch Campus Teacher of the Year recognition multiple times. He has
also been distinguished as a Delaware Today magazine and Philadelphia Magazine “Top Doctor.”
“I really like working with medical students and residents. A big part of
what I do is help them examine patients properly,” said Dr. Burday. “I think we have gotten so far away from the physical
exam and knowing how to do it properly, and frankly just not spending enough
time with patients. It’s a huge problem and maybe even more important now with the pandemic, where patients in the hospital don’t have visitors. I think the more time we can spend with somebody and just let them know that we care about them, the better.”
When not teaching or tending to his patients, Dr. Burday laces up his running shoes and heads outdoors. Having discovered a love of running after his college years, he now makes a point
to schedule time for the mind-clearing sport on a regular basis. “I used to just run on the weekends, but now I try to It helps me think, it helps me clear my head, and sometimes solve problems as well and relax a little bit.” Not to be an underachiever, Dr. Burday has competed in more than half a dozen marathons,
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Del Med J | January/February 2021 | Vol. 93 | No. 1